The weigh-ins are over, so it's now time to get down to business with one of the biggest heavyweight boxing rematches of the last decade. Saturday night in Las Vegas, WBC champion Deontay Wilder and lineal king Tyson Fury will once again go to war in the middle of the ring just a little over one year since their controversial split draw in December 2018.
The first fight ended in a controversial split draw and their rematch will be jointly promoted by both American Al Haymon's Premier Boxing and Bob Arum's Top Rank and British Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions.
The fight is a rematch after the controversial split decision draw between Wilder and Fury on December 1, 2018. After the bout, there were calls for an immediate rematch, as their first didn't really produce a real winner.
The WBC announced in February 2019 that there would not be an immediate rematch as Fury signed a contract with ESPN and Top Rank that meant the negotiations would be more difficult as the rematch would be a co-promotion, of which there had only been two before: Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson in 2002 and Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao in 2015.
As the rematch was delayed, Fury and Wilder both scheduled fights. On May 18, 2019, Wilder faced Dominic Breazeale (20–1, 18 KOs) and achieved a first-round KO.
Weeks later on June 15, 2019, Fury took on Tom Schwarz (24–0, 16 KOs) and scored a second-round TKO. Fury followed this stoppage win with a 12-round unanimous decision victory over Otto Wallin (20–0, 13 KOs) on September 14, 2019. Wilder then had a rematch with Luis Ortiz (31–1, 26 KOs) on November 23, 2019, and won by seventh-round KO.
Both Fury and Wilder called each other out after their fights, and the rematch was officially announced on December 27, 2019, for February 22, 2020, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
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